I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I conduct ” Stretching Your frame of Mind” workshops all over the place. Over the past forty-four years of shooting advertising and corporate photography, one can’t help to have been involved with some pretty funny stuff; especially in the advertising world where people tend to be weird. This was always acceptable when and if the interested parties had enough talent to transcend hard stares coming from the management side of the advertising agencies.
One project I worked on, I came in contact with one of the strangest and most talented art directors I had worked with in my career. The agency was in Chicago, and the client was Rubbermaid Sundial Furniture.
It was scheduled to be two weeks of shooting which meant a large budget, so the account department wanted me to fly up and meet with them, the client, and the art director assigned to the project in person.
I flew to Chicago and immediately cabbed it to their building. I walked into the agency and gave the receptionist my name. I was led to the art director’s office and told to wait. As I sat down, I started looking around and couldn’t believe what I was seeing…which was one of the strangest things I had ever encountered.
Everything in his office had been covered and wrapped in Aluminum Foil. From his desk to his chair to the coat rack. His drawing board, T- square, pencils and pencil holder, stapler…everything!!!
I was flabbergasted…so much so that I started laughing..and I’ve seen some pretty weird stuff in my career. When this guy walked in he didn’t say a word about how his room was decorated…he completely ignored it and as a result, I didn’t mention it in case he wanted the satisfaction of me thinking he was one of the oddest people I had ever met and obviously had come from somewhere deep in the middle of the Earth.
The Art Director.
The shoot involved having two trucks loaded with Rubbermaid’s entire line of furniture following Gary and I down the coast highway from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and allowing me to do anything I wanted. As it turned out, we had a great time and he was one of the most talented art directors I had ever worked with.
FYI, the above photo has not been post-processed in any way. Straight out of the camera, and shot on Kodachrome 25 film.
Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.
JoeB
